Green Valley/Fairfield schools (how much, homes, new construction)

[motherofkandb]

Hi - we are relocating from PA to Bay Area this summer. We saw reasonable homes and new construction in Green Valley and Fairfield, CA. Can anyone give me information about the high schools in the area? My kids are in 7th and 8th grade. The realtor told me that most people put their kids in private school. Any info would be helpful! Thanks.

[xynny]

Vanden High is the best one, but it's in the Travis School District, which is on the east side of Fairfield. 7th and 8th you can go to Green Valley Middle in green valley. Rodriguez High is the one that serves Cordelia/green valley but I don't know how good it is. Green Valley Middle is supposedly quite good, too.

[llowllevellowll]

Both of my nieces attend Green Valley Middle and since I'm the primary caretaker for them, I handle the dealing with the school on a frequent basis. It's been a pretty terrific school. As with any school, your child will get out of it what they elect to get out of it (i.e. how much you're requiring them to get out of their schooling), but Green Valley has challenged both and it's been a really positive experience for both. Facilities are fantastic (and unique), and the teachers (save for one or two) have been really engaging and interested in their work (my nieces are both in honors but the same teachers that teach honors courses also teach the non-honors equivelant). It should be noted that GVM is the GATE middle school for Fairfield, so there are honors students bussed in from around the district. Test score wise, GVM does fantastically well in California (low 900s out of 1000; See California API).

For elementary, Green Valley has an even higher-scoring elementary in Nelda Mundy (again, APIs in the 900s). My nieces didn't attend Nelda Mundy so I have no personal experience with them, but have also heard good things.

Rodriguez has some flaws, from what I understand. As is typical with districts that have good primary and middle schools, the high schools tend to lag behind. I have no personal experience with Rodriguez but I believe last I checked, their API was somewhere between 750-850. I believe it'd be a decent upgrade over Fairfield HS or Armijo though I'm unsure how it'd fair vs Vanden. Again, I'm sure it's one of those things where your high schooler will get his education just as much from home as he will in school, and regardless of where they go, they can make a positive educational experience out of it if that's what they choose to do.

Best of luck.